PHILIP KAMRASSAerial view of the Thaddeus Kosciuszko Bridge (twin bridges) on the Northway, looking north as seen Thursday, July 10, 2008, from Colonie, N.Y. (Philip Kamrass/Times Union archive)

UNKNOWNUndated photograph showing horse drawn carriages on Broadway with the Worden Hotel on the right and the United States Hotel on the left in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (Courtesy of the George S. Bolster Collection of the Historical Society of Saratoga Springs)

HAND OUTWorkers rebuild the Saratoga Springs Train sation in 1900. (Courtesy of the George S. Bolster Collection of the Historical Society of Saratoga Springs)

Photo courtesy of George S. Bolster Collection/Historical Society of Saratoga Springs -- D&H Train Station from Division St. in Saratoga Springs, NY in 1937.

You name a way to travel, and people have probably used it to get to Saratoga.

From horse and buggy to cars on the Northway, from trains to planes to steamboats, the crowds have found many ways over the past 150 years to get to the race track.

Sportswriter Red Smith, in the mid-20th century, described the way to get to Saratoga this way: "You drive north for about 175 miles, turn left on Union Avenue and go back 100 years."

In its earliest years, the locals arrived by horse and buggy, while guests coming from New York City and other distant points took the train.

"The trunk in this case is not a suitcase," she said. It refers to the "trunk line" that took passengers from New York City to the August place to be.

Trains began running to Saratoga in 1828, said Jim Shaughnessy, author of a history of the Delaware & Hudson Railroad.

That predates the first thoroughbred racing, in 1863, or the opening of the track a year later. Saratoga Springs already had begun to boom by then, thanks to travelers arriving to bathe in its renowned mineral waters and gamble in John Morrissey's casinos. Morrissey started racing to give his customers something to do during the day, said Allan Carter, historian for the National Museum of Racing. Saratoga was already a popular rail destination before the first race was run.

In 1901, the Saratoga Limited line was launched, promising to take passengers the 180 miles from New York to Saratoga Springs in 210 minutes every day but Sunday.

"During the grand era, that was the way to go," Shaughnessy said. "They had special trains from New York City to Saratoga, the Saratoga Limited."

At the time, the railroad station was in downtown Saratoga Springs, behind the two major hotels of the day, the United States and the Grand Union. The Price Chopper supermarket on Railroad Avenue stands today where the station once welcomed visitors.

Rich travelers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries paid to have their own private cars attached to the train from New York, Shaughnessy said. Once they arrived in Saratoga, their cars would be unhooked from the train and they would live in them — or stay in a hotel or rented residence, as people still do today.

In a move that would now be unthinkable, horse owner Stephen Sanford walked his horses from Amsterdam to Saratoga over two days, then ran them in the meet. Sanford ran the stable Hurricana around the turn of the 20th century.

He would leave at 1 a.m. two days before the meet with 25 to 35 horses, Carter said. Half would have riders, while the rest would be led. Sanford's staff would stop and water the horses, letting them rest, at hotels along the way.

Steamboats also provided a popular way to travel in the early years, Lynn said.

"People came to Saratoga first by a combination of sailing up the Hudson River and then getting a horse and carriage to go drink the waters," she said.

Many trackgoers would take a boat up the Hudson River, disembark in Troy or Albany, and then take a horse and carriage ride up to Saratoga.

"There would have been horse and buggy roads," Lynn said. "It was probably really uncomfortable."

From 1885 to the turn of the century, trolley lines also brought passengers to the track from Schenectady and from Troy, Shaughnessy said.

In 1894, famed journalist Nellie Bly wrote a scathing depiction of the town, calling it "our wickedest summer resort."

But she wrote with delight in The World newspaper about the view of vehicles on their way to the course.

"The Saratoga race-course is a very pretty one, and the wide boulevard that leads to it presents a lovely sight as vehicles of all descriptions fly gayly to and from the course," she wrote.

By the 1920s, cars were becoming more and more commonplace. Car races were held on what is now Fifth Avenue in the 1920s, Carter said.

By the 1930 Travers race, he said, "there were so many people (in cars), they just parked their cars up and down Union Avenue."

In the mid-1950s, the state began building the Adirondack Northway, which would transform Saratoga County from mostly farmland to bedroom communities. The road was finished in 1967, and the route to the racetrack suddenly got much easier.

"You can just get off the Northway and walk to the track if you want," Lynn said.